628 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



Char. — Bill shorter and more robust than in Cursorius, straight, 

 the tip slightly widened and curved ; feathers of the forehead 

 advanced ; orbits feathered ; 2nd and 3rd primaries sub-equal and 

 longest; tarsus long, scutellate, feet short, the outer toe joined by 

 web. 



This form combines the large eye and somewhat the colours of 

 some of the true Plovers, especially of the Dottrels, with the 

 lengthened legs and general structure of the Courier-plovers. It 

 is composed of one Indian and two or three African species, one of 

 which, Cursorius chalcopteras, Temm., (subsequently separated as 

 Chalcopterus) nearly agrees in character with the Indian bird ; the 

 other species, C. bicinctus, being said by Bonaparte to approximate 

 Cursorius. As far as is known of their habits from the Indian 

 bird, thsy may be said to be a mountain form of Cursorius, fre- 

 quenting rocky hills with thin jungle. 



841. Rhinoptilus bitorquatus, Jerdon. 



Blyth, J. A. S., XVII. 254 — R. bicinctus apud Bonaparte, 

 (olim) — Adavi icuta-titti, Tel., i. e., Jungle empty-purse. 



The Double-banded Plovee. 



Descr. — Above sandy brown with a faint pink gloss, the dorsal 

 feathers slightly margined with rusty brown, and the wing-coverts 

 more conspicuously with pale rufescent ; crown of the head black 

 with rusty lateral margins to the feathers ; a broad white super- 

 cilium, commencing with the lores, is continued round the occiput, 

 and there is a less defined (but equally conspicuous) rufescent 

 white streak along the mesial line of the head ; ear-coverts streaked 

 dusky and ferruginous ; throat white, with a broad rufous band 

 below it ; this is bordered by a narrow white semi-collar, continued 

 to below the ear-coverts and narrowly edged above and below with 

 dusky, then follows a broad brown gorget, and another white 

 collar, margined above and below with dusky ; this again is 

 succeeded by brown, forming an ill-defined band on the lower 

 part of the breast, and the rest of the lower parts are isabelline, 

 with white upper and lower tail-coverts ; primaries and their 

 coverts black, the first two primaries largely and obliquely marked 



